Dan Goldman/Staff Photographer
Wesleyan men’s basketball entered this week hoping to right a ship that had been sinking over the course of an arduous winter break schedule. The team played two non-conference games this week and left with two victories. After amassing wins against Merchant Marine Academy and Eastern Connecticut State University, the Cardinals (11-10 overall, 3-4 NESCAC) appear ready to close out their season strongly and proceed to the NESCAC tournament on the backs of the best threesome of captains in school history.
Merchant Marine entered the game with a 10-9 record and were looking forward to beating the 9-10 Cardinals. The first half saw both teams playing even basketball, and the score would have been tied at the break had senior tri-captain Derick Beresford ’13 not hit a three with 15 second remaining to give the Cardinals a 39-36 lead. The momentum was clearly altered, and the Cardinals controlled the pace from that point forward. They trailed only once more (44-41, three minutes into the half) and cruised to a huge 76-65 win after regaining balance. Captains Beresford and Shasha Brown ’13 paced the scoring for Wesleyan with 21 and 19 points, respectively. However, that stat doesn’t tell the whole story, for the Cardinals used a balanced attack to outpace Merchant Marine. Three other players scored at least seven points: tri-captain Mike Callahan ’13 finished with nine and six rebounds, Glen Thomas ’14 with seven and nine rebounds, and second-unit swingman Brian Bartner ’16 with another nine.
Eastern Connecticut State (13-6) came into the Cardinals’ second match-up with a better record than Merchant Marine, but played scared early, allowing the Cardinals to jump out to a 42-30 halftime lead that they would never relinquish en route to a 74-63 final. The Cardinals relied on a balanced attack once more, again paced by Brown and Beresford with 19 and 18, respectively. The same game plan worked like a charm, as Callahan and Thomas maintained a strong inside presence while both scoring in the double digits. Thomas’ 10 points also came off of perfect 5-5 shooting. This time, instead of from Bartner, the boost off the bench came from guard BJ Davis ’16, who hit two threes and a jumper for eight points.
Perhaps the biggest story involved in the quality win over Eastern Connecticut State was that of Beresford joining Callahan and Brown as a member of Wesleyan’s illustrious 1,000-point club. In addition to Beresford’s accomplishments, Brown now stands at second in all-time scoring, needing just 19 points to surpass Kanem Johnson’s ’04 mark of 1,692 points. With three games to do it and with Brown averaging 17.4 points a game, it looks very likely that he will meet his mark.
The Cardinals resume play against NESCAC opponents when they travel to New York on Sunday to take on Hamilton College. That game will be followed by two home games to close out the season against Bowdoin and Colby. Bowdoin will make the trek down next Friday, Feb. 8, while Colby will journey to Middletown the day after that. Be sure to catch the Cardinals on one of these days as they gear up to repeat last year’s unexpected playoff run.